Stan seizing the opportunity.We all know that opportuniy only knocks once. Winter is so unpredictable here on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland that when the opportunity presents itself you just have to take advantage of it. The forecast for tomorrow, Wednesday, was 15 - 25 cms of snow and 100 NE winds. Today the window of opportunity was open for a short time.
So, Stan took a vacation day and we decided on a paddle from Colliers to Marysvale, which we managed to turn into about a 20 km paddle. I brought a lunch but my neoprene hatch covers were frozen solid to the boat so I had to put it in the cockpit. It didn't get eaten until the drive home.
We started off in some crusty ice on the surface and a few flurries falling. Just right to keep ya cool. Picked our way along the coast taking pictures of icicles where water flowing out of the cliffs had frozen. Crossed over to the Colliers side and had a liesurely paddle back to the take-out. Conveniently, there's a river running out so we washed out the boats and splashed around to wash the salt off our gear. It wasn't a challenging paddle but a very worthwhile thing to do today.
Stan and I didn't wait to see if a second knock would come, we were happy we didn't. Thanks again Stan for your excellent company on the water. I expect it was a good use of your vacation day!
Tony :-)
Looking out the bay. Marysvale is around the headland on the left. It was glassy calm in close to the put-in but lots of ice forming on top of the salt water.
Stan making his way into Marysvale. I stopped here and took a drink out of a natural spring that was running out of the hillside. The water was much warmer than the water we paddled in.
There was a bit of swell that made for a bit of splish - splash!
Stan cruising along the ice and snow covered cliffs on the way into Colliers.
The rock is an erratic, that is it was transported from somewhere else by the glaciers that retreated here 12,000 years ago.
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